


Nearly Wizards (Ever Since We Met)

by houseofmemoriess



Category: Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-04-17 07:43:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4658316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/houseofmemoriess/pseuds/houseofmemoriess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the self-indulgent bandom Harry Potter AU you never knew you wanted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This all started by putting the fbr fam into houses with my lovely friends [Rachel](http://johntops.tumblr.com) and Tin. I never thought it would ever get far enough to post this, but ta-da! 
> 
> My tumblr is [ houseofmemories](http://houseofmemoriess.tumblr.com), come talk to me for info on updates and to fuel me with ideas.
> 
> Enjoy!

King’s Cross’ busiest day of the year has always been September 1st. Hundreds of magical folk swarm in from all over England to ride the Hogwarts Express. It’s usually a day of overjoyed first years and teary parents. However, for Ryan Ross, boarding the Hogwarts Express has always meant a year without the company of his father. It also meant another year with his two best friends, Spencer Smith and Jon Walker. 

Having spent most of the summer at the Smith’s, Ryan had graciously accepted a ride to the station with them. Growing up on the same block as Spencer, the two were almost inseparable. Almost. When Spencer got picked for Hufflepuff and Ryan for Ravenclaw in their first year, Ryan had really thought that was the end of their friendship. It’s been four years since then, and the two were happy to be proven wrong. 

Waiting for Spencer and Jon to say goodbye to their families, Ryan leaned up against one of the many brick walls and settled for people watching. Down the platform, the solemn Ravenclaw spotted a few friends. One was short, covered in terrible tattoos and wore skinny jeans so tight that they almost gave Ryan’s a run for their money. The friend appeared to be losing another battle with his mom over his eyeliner. The other one was tall, wore too much neon and very obviously trying to not laugh as he watched Pete Wentz getting told off from across the platform. As expected, Ryan saw Pete flip Gabe Saporta off when Pete’s mother wasn’t looking and laughed to himself. It was Pete and Gabe’s last year at Hogwarts so their parents seemed to be a little more fussy over them than usual. Based on that realization, Ryan decided to catch up with them later. 

He had just been noticing a lost-looking family of muggleborns when Ryan felt an arm over his shoulder. To his left, he felt Jon pulling him in and smiled, “Wow, year five, man. Are you excited? It feels like just yesterday I was that guy.”

 

Ryan followed Jon’s eyes to find a first year who looked like he just crash landed out of the muggle proof wall from the other side of King’s Crossing. Snickering, he remembered that Jon had actually asked him question. Though, if his last four years at Hogwarts proved to be true, then he was sure this year would be just like all the others.

“Yeah, yet another year of homework, quidditch and going to too many parties that Pete and Gabe throw. Which reminds me, who do you think is gonna win this year? Didn’t Gabe win best party last year?” Ryan replied, throwing in a eyeroll for good measure. 

Every year since making their house’s quidditch teams, Pete and Gabe have had a rivalry on who could throw the best party of the year. Pete was the Ravenclaw Keeper and Gabe was Slytherin’s notorious Beater. Whoever won a game got to throw a party and whoever throws the best party of the year gets bragging rights. Ryan never quite understood how bragging rights were a prize, but he liked the free chocolate liqueur and daisyroot draught, so he guessed it all worked out.

Jon laughed and said, “I think so, but Pete mentioned something about a,” he brought his fingers up to create air quotes, “‘Master Plan’ to beat Gabe this year, whatever that means. So we’ll have to see. Either way, there are always cute girls, so I’m always down.” 

Ryan smiled at the air quotes and the thought of Pete’s apparent “Master Plan”. Over the years, Pete seemed to always have something up his sleeve whether it was some new plan or a prank to pull. However the tall Ravenclaw had no idea how Pete landed the title of a Prefect. It was probably something to do with the teachers thinking that giving Pete Wentz of all people responsibility would make him “grow as a person” or something nonsensical like that. In reality, all it really did was give the mischievous Prefect more power and the ability to sneak around after curfew. 

Ryan grimaced as he started to remember the previous term, “Let’s just hope it’s not a repeat of last year’s plan.” 

Somehow Pete had gotten the merpeople to sing during their final quidditch game. As one could only imagine, it didn’t really go as planned. Correction, it went absolutely horridly. This is of course because Pete had kind of, sort of, forgotten to warn his teammates before hand, resulting in them totally and completely losing the game. As Ryan had disastrously found out, finding the snitch while also having literally the worst screeching imaginable fill his ears is a bit disorientating. 

“Though, I guess you’re right. Pete and Gabe do always get the most attractive people to come to their parties...” Ryan found himself drabbling on.

Luckily, he saw a hand waving and realized it was Spencer calling them over to board the train. 

Ryan quickly waved goodbye to Spencer’s family and made his way to the edge of the platform. He heard the train’s final boarding whistle as he stepped on, and silently thanked his best friend for not letting him miss the only train to hogwarts. That could have seriously been an issue. He mindlessly followed Spencer and Jon through the now moving train’s corridor to find somewhere to sit. The three of them eventually settled into an empty compartment towards the back of the train. About when Ryan got up to close the door, Spencer’s eyes widened as if he had just remembered something.

“Oh, wait! I think Brendon is coming, too, so don’t close just yet.” 

Ryan was momentarily surprised, although after a second he realized that he probably shouldn’t be. Spencer and Brendon shared practically their entire schedule together last year and since quickly became friends. Which meant that now Ryan, Jon, and Brendon had also became friends. It still felt weird, though. Jon, Spencer and Ryan had been friends since day one at Hogwarts, when Jon got lost on the Express and ended up in their compartment. 

It wasn’t like Ryan had anything against Brendon… quite the opposite, really. Brendon was fun to be around. He was really good at magic and he always had some funny story to tell, or well, Ryan assumed it was funny. Brendon smiled and laughed way too much for his stories not to be funny. And although Ryan thought that laughing at your own jokes was kind of lame, he weirdly didn’t seem to mind it when Brendon did. However it was kind of a moot point considering that Ryan hardly listened to what the brunette Hufflepuff said, mostly he just watched the ways those beautiful lips moved and stretched to show even more beautiful teeth. Sometime Ryan thought that maybe teeth shouldn’t be beautiful but he just couldn’t help himself. Brendon Urie had beautiful teeth. Maybe beautiful everything if he was being completely honest with himself, which he wasn’t. 

Out of his haze, Ryan looked back up at the door to see Brendon walking towards them. It was weird seeing Brendon in muggle clothes, especially since he’d never seen Brendon outside of Hogwarts, but there he was, red glasses and all. It occurred to Ryan that he had never actually reopened the door; this thought mostly came from the awkward look Brendon was currently giving him while Ryan stood there. Just stood there, holding the door closed, staring at Brendon while Brendon stared back, now a bit confused. Flustered and wide-eyed, Ryan quickly mumbled an apology and opened the door, letting Brendon in and hastily taking his seat.

When Brendon sat down practically unbothered, Ryan noticed the slight raised eyebrow from Spencer. He shook his head to signal that it was fine. Totally and completely not awkward fine.

Ever since they were kids, Ryan and Spencer had this telepathic way of communicating. It wasn’t something they’d ever discussed, but as the two got older they realized they didn’t have to say as much to convey what they were feeling. It wasn’t magic as much as just knowing someone for a long time and being able to read them well. 

Despite the head shake, Ryan really wasn’t totally and completely fine. Everything about Brendon Urie made him nervous: his dumb smile, how his eyes crinkle when he hears a good pun, the way he always seemed way too excited to talk to people and all in all his weird puppy like mannerisms that the aloof Ravenclaw definitely did not find endearing. Pushing these everso unwanted thoughts out of his mind, Ryan decided to look outside the window instead of staring at Brendon and making a fool out of himself again. 

Brendon seemed to think nothing of the silent conversation and bounced to life, exclaiming, “Oh my god, I feel like I haven’t seen you guys in forever! How were your summer vacations? Ryan, you stayed at Spencer’s mostly, right?” 

At this, Ryan looked up, surprised.

“Um, yeah,” He started. “I mean we live right next to each other, but yeah, I guess I did...”

He then glanced at Spencer for help. He didn’t like being put on the spot and wasn’t exactly as comfortable around Brendon as he was with his other two friends yet. Spencer gave a knowing look and thankfully jumped in, talking about what he and Ryan did that summer. 

It wasn’t much; they mostly stayed at home playing muggle video games and babysitting Spencer’s younger sister Sam, but it was still fun. Jon visited a few times too, but his family spent most of their summer on vacation. 

Ryan and Jon were both Purebloods, but neither one ever really talked about it. The only time it came up was when Jon mentioned his mansion that had been in his family for generations or when he would score them free tickets from his cousin on some quidditch team. 

With Ryan, however, his family was never really brought up. Sometimes he complained about his dad wasting his magic blood doing nothing, but other than that Ryan didn’t say much and no one pushed it. However, Brendon was muggleborn. His family didn’t approve of magic, but that didn’t stop him from learning absolutely everything he could about the wizarding world. Sometimes Ryan swore that Brendon should have been sorted into Ravenclaw, but most of the time it was pretty clear that Brendon was a Hufflepuff through and through. 

The conversation moved onto Jon’s vacation in Albania with his parents. Apparently his Aunt Tully was a dragon tamer and looked after a particularly wild Swedish Short-Snout named Aviv. During his stay, Jon found that sneaking out at night with Aunt Tully to learn how to ride a dragon was almost certainly not a good idea. Especially when his parents specifically told him not to go along with his aunt’s “definitely not reasonable” plans. The cause for alarm was mostly because Jon had almost failed Care Of Magical Creatures two years in a row. This of course led to him catching on fire and running in circles while Aunt Tully tried to get Aviv to calm down. Ryan found himself laughing at the idea of a particularly helpless and on-fire Jon running around screaming his head off. Apparently, so did Brendon and Spencer because the whole compartment roared to life with laughter.

Watching Brendon laugh was pleasant, Ryan decided. Unlike most people, Brendon rarely put on a mask; he let his emotions show on his face. People always knew when he was happy or upset because he was constantly an open book, extremely readable. 

When Brendon smiled, his smiles reached his eyes. So when Brendon started talking about all the new bands he discovered over break, Ryan found himself smiling too as he watched Brendon's hands move wildly as he explained his muggle bands. Brendon was in the middle of saying how some band he'd seen (Wink 187? Blink?) was absolutely amazing live, and how he'd gotten second row and some guy (Matt? Mark?) looked at him during the show when Ryan’s eyes started to move towards Brendon’s lips. They were so full and a perfect shade of pink, it was a wonder that more people weren't mesmerized by them. Honestly, they were just the perfect shape and the right amount of plumpness that Ryan found himself thinking about how they would stretch and wrap around his--

Ryan felt something jab him in the ribs. He looked for the source to see Jon quickly pulling his elbow back. Oh god, Ryan thought, please tell me he couldn’t tell what I was thinking about. As if Jon could read his mind, he looked over at Ryan with a shit-eating grin plastered across his face. Ryan felt his cheeks flush as he noticed Brendon looking at him strangely. Feeling lost, Spencer looked between Jon and Ryan with furrowed brows in attempt to figure out what has just happened as Jon started laughing. Watching his friends’ faces contort into confusion, Jon started laughing.

“What? What’s so funny?” Spencer asked, glancing to the Hufflepuff next to him to see if he had figured it out. 

Brendon touched the corner of his mouth as he asked Ryan, “What? Do I have something on my face? Is it my chocolate frog from earlier? I swear I always leave chocolate on my face and I never notice it. Or maybe it’s just food in general. Yeah, that’s probabl-- ”

Ryan felt himself crack a small smile at Brendon’s babbling and said, “No, nothing’s on your face, Bren. I guess I just zoned out, sorry.” 

Although Ryan had managed to outwardly compose himself, inwardly, he just got more confused: Since when did he call Brendon that?

 

“What were you saying? Something about Mark?” Spencer asked, reigniting the conversation. 

And that was all it took for Brendon to start back up again, animatedly chatting about something that the Ravenclaw wasn’t really listening to. Ryan could see Jon roll his eyes in his peripheral and something told him that he would hear about this later. 

\-- 

As it turns out, Ryan was not wrong. Spencer and Brendon wound up on a different carriage than Jon and Ryan, who ended up sharing a carriage with Pete, Patrick and Frank. This gave Jon the opportunity to pester Ryan about what he caught him doing earlier. 

Unsuspectingly, Ryan thought about how nice the night was. The stars were out and a warm breeze curled around them, welcoming him back to Ryan’s favorite time of year.

September meant that the trees were just barely starting to turn color, but not enough to label it as Autumn. After all, their Summer had just ended. Pete had his arm around Patrick’s shoulder while Patrick leaned into him, listening to his boyfriend talk mindlessly about dungeon trolls while Frank corrected him on his historical accuracy. Hearing the familiar banter felt like home to Ryan. Unfortunately for him, Jon decided this was the perfect time to strike.

“So, Ryan, what happened on the train earlier with Brendon?” Jon said with a sly, knowing smile. Pete was notorious for being the gossip king, always having to hear the latest story. Ryan thought this was probably how Pete pulled the best pranks. If he kept tabs on all of his friends, then he knew how to push their buttons. So with Pete being there, Jon was guaranteed an audience and maybe even some help. 

Luckily for Jon, Pete noticed Ryan’s glare right away and perked up with, “Brendon? The Hufflepuff in your year?” 

The breeze stopped and Ryan felt his ears warming; he knew where this was going. 

“Yeah, the one that Ryan always stares at.” Jon supplied, happy to have Pete’s attention and even happier to embarrass his friend.

“Not always, okay?” Ryan mumbled, he didn’t want to talk about this. “I was just zoning out.” 

Jon grinned even wider, his plan was working. “Uh huh, because you weren’t staring at his lips the entire time on the train ride here, right?” 

Ryan sighed as he realized Jon wasn’t stopping until he got something out of him. Pete sat up a little straighter; this was the type of dirt he loved to get about his friends. “Wait, wait. Is this a crush, Ryan?” He asked curiously, yet it wasn’t an innocent question. It was a prelude to mockery. “How did I not know about this?” 

Even Frank looked a little surprised, as he glanced up from his battered copy of A History Of Magic. Ryan wasn’t one to talk about his feelings, let alone crushes, so this was news. 

He sighed. 

“It’s not, like, a crush or anything, okay? He just has nice lips,” Ryan paused, thinking. How much did he want to share? He knew Jon and Pete wouldn’t let him off easy if he gave them something on the more juicy yet truthful side. “I mean, you’ve seen them right? Total DSL.”

Jon’s grin could not have gotten any bigger. He got exactly what he wanted out of his friend, “So that was what you were thinking about back on the train? I fucking knew it.” 

Ryan huffed as he leaned back against the inside of the carriage, crossed his arms. Damn, he thought, Jon knew him way too well. Pete looked from Ryan to Jon, not missing a second of the interaction. To Ryan’s dismay, even Patrick looked interested now. 

Ryan tried to recompose himself and take control of the conversation and steer it very, very far away from him. “Okay, well whatever, at least I’m not as bad as Frank over here.” he said, gesturing to the short Slytherin, who looked up from his textbook. “It’s not like I’m the one pining over a teacher.” 

Frank smiled and brought his hands up in surrender, “Yeah, well at least I admit to it, Mr. It’s-Totally-Not-A-Crush-But-So-Is. I mean, come on. You’re even blushing right now.” 

Ryan blanched as Pete leaned in to get a closer look in the dimly lit carriage. Fuck, was he really blushing?

Jon laughed and tousled Ryan’s previously perfectly straightened hair and said, “Don’t worry. We’ll make this work.”

And to that Ryan groaned and sunk lower on the carriage bench. Maybe this would be an interesting year after all...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *DSL = Dick Sucking Lips


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The comments left on the last chapter made my little ~~trash~~ treasure heart soar. thanks loves. 
> 
> I'm just going to dedicate all Frank moments in this chapter to [Ray](http://johntops.tumblr.com) and all peterick moments to [Tin](http://dizzyondreams.tumblr.com) (aka my beautiful betas.)

The next morning Ryan awoke to the sun shining through his windows, illuminating the blue tapestries that hung on the brick walls surrounding him. He sat up and surveyed his dormitory: two of his roommates were still asleep while the other three’s beds were empty. He noticed that he still had an hour until he was supposed to meet his friends for breakfast, so Ryan took his time getting ready. 

As he tugged on his pants, Ryan was thankful that the school stopped trying to police how tight guys’ pants should be for their uniform. After Pete and a few other guys revolted by using a charm to shrink their pants to the point of leaving literally nothing to the imagination, the school realized they were better off allowing normal skinny jeans. After he buttoned his shirt, Ryan started to work on his tie. This part of getting dressed always felt tedious. Somewhere into his second year, Ryan decided to stop tucking in his shirt and start letting his tie sit loose around his neck. Part of it was because he couldn’t be bothered to care anymore, but also because he liked how it made him look. Ryan slipped on his robe and moved to the mirror. 

Using his wand, he straightened and styled his hair into a misshapen mohawk. He never understood why, but he prefered to do his eye makeup by hand. It just felt right. Today’s work was just a simple lining of the eyes, enough to make his eyes pop but not enough to draw much attention to him. Satisfied, Ryan decided to walk down to the Great Hall. While he would still be a few minutes early, he figured he could use the time to catch up with the friends he didn’t see over break. 

As Ryan entered the Great Hall, he scanned the four long tables for his friends. He saw Frank and one of his other Slytherin friends, Mikey, sitting at the table farthest to the left and decided to walk over. Sitting down, he nodded a “hey” and started to pour himself a cup of coffee. On the table were drinks imported from all over the world. Ryan had yet to try most to them, as he mostly stuck with coffee and orange juice. Frank nodded back, still reading his book while Mikey asked Ryan how his summer was. 

“It was good,” Ryan replied, taking a sip of black coffee. “Stayed at Spencer’s mostly and hung out. We went to a couple shows and Spencer tried to teach me guitar. Did you know muggles actually play instruments? Like with their fingers?” 

Mikey laughed and shook his head ‘no’ while Frank smirked. It was times like these that Frank’s halfblood came to surface. ‘Pureblood Ignorance’ is what Frank called it, the lack of realisation that muggles have actually achieved ways to do practically the same things that magical folk can do. 

“Yes, dipshit. How else did you think music was made without magic? Music is just vibrations in a satisfying sounding sequence. Muggles can’t just will music to happen, so they have to actually have skill to play instruments,” Frank said with a roll of his eyes. Ryan smiled, he forgot how much he missed Frank’s bluntness. It was one of Ryan’s favorite character traits.

“I guess I never thought about it. Either way, my fingers are still sore,” Ryan said, finishing his cup of coffee. Just then, he felt Spencer and Jon sitting down next to him and saw Brendon sliding in next to Frank. 

Mikey grinned a little too wide and said, “Oh, is that why they’re sore? I could have sworn it was because of something else..” 

Ryan groaned. Leave it to Mikey to make everything dirty. The drinks disappeared, leaving behind only coffee and simple juices. Moments later, the food appeared and everyone went to grab some bacon, except for Brendon and Frank, who went for the fruit salad. Leaning to grab a muffin, Spencer said, “Speaking of sore fingers, whatever happened to that guy Alister from Gabe’s party last year?” 

Jon nodded in agreement, “Yeah, as I remember, you two were practically inseparable.” Ryan looked up from his bacon to see Brendon’s eyes widen and color drain from his face. That was weird. Ryan thought everyone knew he was gay, so why did Brendon have such an odd reaction to the mention of one of his hook ups? He had only heard of Brendon with girls, but surely that didn’t mean Brendon was homophobic, right? Ryan shook his head to himself, no, Brendon couldn’t be homophobic. He just wasn’t that kind of guy.

Scratching the back of his head, trying to remember, Ryan said, “Alister? I kinda forgot about him, to be honest. Fun for the night, I guess. Kind of hoping I don’t see him around, he got weirdly clingy afterwards.” Not that Ryan would have minded a romantic relationship, he just didn’t like it when a hookup thought they were more than just a hookup. The guy even tried to top. The thought of it made Ryan laugh to himself. No way that would have happened. 

As he poured himself a glass of orange juice, Ryan noted that Brendon looked relieved. Confused at the sight, he decided to push the thought away and ask everyone what their schedules were. Even though they were two years above the foursome, every now and then Frank and Mikey would have something matchup with their schedules and this year was no different. As it turned out Mikey shared a free period with Spencer and Frank with Ryan. They all made fun of Frank when he said that he had Professor Way for Defense Against The Dark Arts this year. 

“Seriously Frank, when are you going to just ask my brother out? You’re both of age now, so it doesn’t even matter anymore,” Mikey sighed. Professor Way, or Gerard as they all called him, and Frank had been after each other since Frank was in his fifth year and Gerard in his seventh. Unfortunately by the time Frank got the courage to confess his feelings, Gerard got offered the DADA position. It was a year after Gerard had accepted the position, and Frank had yet to do anything about his feelings except to pretend he needed extra help in class so he could spend more time with Gerard when he wasn’t actively teaching.

Frank bit his lip, looking into his coffee mug and mumbled, “I dunno. Maybe this year I’ll make my move. It’s just, I mean, what if he doesn’t even like me like that? What if he just thinks I’m really good at the Dark Arts and that’s why he’s agreed to spend so much time with me after class?” Everyone looked at him with disbelief, Jon’s jaw even dropped a little.

Ryan rolled his eyes and said, “Oh, come on, Frankie. We all know Gee has had a thing for you since forever, just ask him out. If he says no, he’s dumb.” Ryan looked over to Mikey apologetically, “No offense, Mikey.” 

At that, Mikey put his hands up and said, “None taken, dude. Gee would be stupid to not have fallen for you by now, Frank. You’re really great.” Frank looked slightly less stressed as Mikey squeezed one of his shoulders, but still not completely convinced. It would take some time, but they all knew Frank and Gerard would end up together eventually. 

The fifth years moved the conversation along to see what classes they shared. As usual, Ryan and Jon shared Ancient Runes since they were the only people they knew who actually liked the subject. Jon, Spencer and Brendon all shared Care of Magical Creatures, which Ryan silently thanked himself for not continuing. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the teacher or the creatures, he would just rather fill his schedule with other, more practical subjects. Jon and Brendon shared Defense Against The Dark Arts and Divination. Ryan thought Divination was a weak subject, but Brendon absolutely loved the idea of being able to predict the future. Jon only took it because the professor was really attractive and it was an easy O. To his surprise, Ryan and Brendon had a couple of classes together.

“Awesome! Transfiguration is like my best subject! Professor Clearwater loves me! This will be so much fun,” Brendon said, looking at Ryan and Spencer. It was ironic because she felt the opposite about Ryan. Transfiguration was one of his worst courses. He didn’t do well with magic that was just ‘felt’ or ‘willed’ into existence. Ryan liked having specific directions and being able to follow those directions to create a desired result. Which is why when he saw that the two shared Potions with Spencer, he smiled.

“Fun? That’s not really a word I would use to describe Transfiguration,” Ryan replied, noticing how Brendon’s face fell. “Potions, however? Now that’s what I would call fun.” Brendon groaned. He hated potions. For some reason, Ryan would learn, he could just never get the directions right. Brendon would try his hardest to cut the ingredients the way they were supposed to be, but he looked confused when he came across instructions like “finely dice” and “temper”. Somehow Brendon would use too much frog’s eye or some other peculiar ingredient, and half the time his potions would end up looking like mud. Ryan thought that maybe if Brendon had a partner who knew what they were doing, it would be different. 

 

After finishing breakfast, the guys stayed and talked until the first bell rung at 9. They all got up and walked towards the doors of the Great Hall. Ryan’s first class was with Jon in the East Wing for Study of Ancient Runes, while Spencer and Brendon had Herbology together in the greenhouses. They decided to walk with Mikey and Frank until they reached the moving staircase, at which time the two went towards the West Wing for Alchemy. 

\---

For his fourth period, Ryan had Transfiguration with Brendon and Spencer. When Brendon said their Professor loved him, he was not lying. 

“Goodmorning, Professor Clearwater!” Brendon said as he walked into the classroom with Ryan behind him. Their Professor was middle-aged and portly. She looked like the type of Grandma who always carried candies in her purse and was constantly baking cookies. 

Professor Clearwater was standing behind her desk, organizing papers when she heard Brendon’s greeting. Looking up, she smiled sweetly and gushed, “Oh, Brendon! Its so lovely to have you in my class again. I was very impressed with your Outstanding last year and I do believe you can impress me again this year.” 

Brendon sheepishly smiled and glanced at Ryan, who’s eyebrow was raised, clearly surprised. An Outstanding in Transfiguration? Last year Ryan barely scraped an Acceptable. The only reason he didn’t get Poor was because he begged his Professor to let him do research essays for extra credit. Fortunately, every teacher Ryan had absolutely loved his writing. They said he turned in some of the prettiest and well-written scrolls they had ever seen. Ryan owed this to his elegant handwriting and long-time hobby of hanging out in the library for fun.

As more people trickled into the classroom, Ryan and Brendon headed to a table together and sat down. Spencer came in a little later and sat a couple tables away from them with Linda, a popular Ravenclaw. Their Professor greeted the class and talked about the year’s subject matter. With a flick of her wand, their syllabuses raised off her desk and floated to every person in the room. She then gave them their first task of the year: turn their syllabuses into a hummingbird. If they can undo the spell, they can get their homework assignment. 

The room filled with muttered spells and frustrated chatter. Ryan sunk in his chair; he hated this. Why couldn’t he just get on with the homework assignment? It was probably a written assignment and he could get at least a passing grade on it. This task, however, was torture. Ryan was unenthusiastically waving his wand at the paper when a hummingbird flew past him. He looked over to see Brendon beaming at him. Ryan watched the only hummingbird in the room fly around and then look back at Brendon, who nodded happily. As the bird flew over their desk, Brendon raised his wand and quickly cast another spell. The hummingbird turned back into the syllabus and slowly floated back onto the table. 

“Okay, first off, what the hell? It hasn’t even been a minute since she gave us the task and second off, how?” Ryan said with a disbelieving tone. 

Brendon’s smile faltered a bit and shrugged, “I guess I’ve always just had a knack for this kind of thing. It’s pretty easy.” Brendon paused, smiling again, “I could show you if you wanted?” 

Ryan sighed, hating to admit defeat, but also having no idea how he was going to turn his paper into a bird, never mind having it turn back into paper afterwards. When he nodded, Brendon sat up straighter, obviously excited and said, “Okay so, you hold your wand like this.” He moved his hand so he was holding his wand at a 45 degree angle and Ryan mimicked it perfectly. 

“Yeah, so you just say the spell and move your wand like this-” Ryan once again mimicked Brendon in symmetry. Wand holding was easy, however what Brendon did next was not easily replicable.

Enunciating the spell clearly, Brendon flicked his wand and pointed at his syllabus. The paper turned into a hummingbird and Ryan was once again impressed. Before the bird had a chance to fly away, Brendon turned the bird back into paper. He looked over at Ryan and shrugged, “And then, yeah. You just kind of, um, feel it? I guess?”

Brendon guessed he said something wrong because he could sense Ryan’s frustration grow and bit his lip. He had thought it was pretty obvious, but going off of Ryan’s curled fist and twitching eye, he had thought wrong. 

“Just ‘feel it’? Thats your advice? Are you actually serious?” Ryan fumed. How does that even make sense? This is exactly why Ryan disliked this kind of magic: no certain directions.

“Okay, okay, um. Well, you do what you just did, yeah like that, except um, when you say the spell you have to like, pretend that you are willing it to happen. You have to really want it,” Brendon attempted. Four tries and many frustrated sighs later, Brendon tried to console his tense friend by rubbing Ryan’s shoulder. As he did, Ryan froze. Immediately, Brendon took his hand back, looking like he did something wrong. 

Ryan looked up at Brendon, confused. He was used to his other friends touching him, patting him on the back or draping their arm over his shoulder, but this somehow felt different. When Brendon touched him, he felt the tenseness between his shoulderblades dissolve. It was just a friendly gesture; there was no reason for it to have had such an effect on him. Brendon was biting his lip again, looking worried, so Ryan gave him a small smile to let him know it was fine. When Brendon tentatively smiled back, Ryan tried the spell again and to his surprise, it worked. 

Grinning, Ryan watched his hummingbird fly around the room. He felt Brendon squeeze his arm and say, “See? I knew you could do it! Just gotta have a little patience.” Ryan felt his stomach flutter and looked back at Brendon, whose eyes were sparkling. God, the guy was beautiful, Ryan thought. He pointed and waved his wand at his bird when it flew closer and once again the spell worked. 

Ryan felt relief flood through him, more than happy that the reversal spell worked on the first try. He thanked Brendon and read his syllabus. Towards the bottom of the page were his instructions for his homework assignment. As predicted, it was a written assignment on reverse spells. Ryan sighed happily and thanked Brendon for his help.

Shrugging, Brendon replied, “I didn’t help much, it was mostly you. But, you’re welcome.” Thinking back, Ryan wanted to tell Brendon how wrong he was. Despite his terrible teaching, having Brendon be the one teaching him was a great help. If all Ryan had to do was get a spell right to make Brendon look at him like that, then maybe this subject wasn’t a complete waste of time after all. 

Class had ended and the two picked up their books to leave. As he walked out of the classroom, Ryan realized it was lunchtime, meaning it was time to catch up with the rest of his friends. 

\--

Entering the Great Hall, Ryan saw Gabe, Pete, and a few other friends sitting at the Slytherin table and headed over with Brendon. Up in the rafters, the Great Hall simulated a cloudless blue sky, similar to the real one outside. There were few Autumn decorations out, being that it was early September. More would come in later in the semester, closer to October. As he walked towards his friends, Ryan noticed Pete looking between him and Brendon with a smirk. Gabe and a tall Gryffindor with a lot of piercings named Travie sat across the table. As the two fifth years sat down, Pete wrapped his arm around Ryan’s shoulder and exclaimed, “There’s my Seeker! Ravenclaw’s gonna win the cup this year, right?” 

In Ryan’s third year, he decided to try out for the Seeker position. He honestly didn’t think he would make the team, but the combination of his small frame and agility made him the perfect candidate for the position. The next year, Pete became Captain and his and Gabe’s rivalry intensified. This was the first and only year that both Gabe and Pete were captains of their teams. Ryan never understood why it was that important for Ravenclaw to win, but to Pete, winning was everything. 

“Yeah, sure. When’s practice anyways?” Ryan half-heartedly replied. He really did want to know when practice was, but he also didn’t want to start anything with Gabe sitting across from them. Although, now that Ryan was looking, Travie and Gabe weren’t even paying attention. In fact, they seemed to be planning something: In front of them was a scroll with lots of scribbles and crossed out words. 

Gabe was dipping his quill into a pot of ink when Ryan asked, “Wait, are you guys already planning a party? It’s still the first day of school!”

Gabe gave him a smirk and replied, “You can’t rush perfection, Ross. Although you should be getting your invitation in a few days...” Ryan looked at Pete, hoping for a real answer.

“Come on, man! You know Gabe and I always throw the wickedest Back To School party every year. We’re thinking Friday, so don’t lose your invitation. Also, practice starts tomorrow around 6. Make sure to tell Sisky, he always forgets.” Next to him, Brendon looked nervous. While he was friends with Ryan, Spencer and Jon, he didn’t really know the Gabe and Pete crew very well. Spencer and Jon only knew them because they were friends with Ryan, who was friends with pretty much everyone. 

“I’ll tell Sisky, I think he’s in my Charms class,” Ryan nodded as he spoke, and then glared at Gabe. 

“And this year can you not try to set me up with every guy you know?” Travie laughed, probably remembering Gabe playing this muggle game he learned from his other Gryffindor friend William Beckett called ‘Have you met Ryan?’ at the last party. William said the game was from some muggle show and it basically consisted of Gabe dragging Ryan to every at least bi-curious guy at the party saying, “Haaaaave you met Ryan?” and then disappearing. It resulted in a lot of Ryan awkwardly standing there while a guy that he may or not know just looking at him in confusion. At that, Pete stopped trying to steal Patrick’s fries and turned to Ryan. 

“Why? Already got your eye on someone?” Pete teased, glancing at a preoccupied Brendon. Out of the corner of his eye, Ryan saw Gabe grinning. Great, Ryan thought, now Gabe is in on it, too? 

He sighed and turned to Brendon, who was either really interested in their Transfiguration syllabus or trying to pretend he wasn’t listening to their conversation, and said, “So, we have Potions together for last period right?” 

Brendon looked up and replied, “Um, I think that’s right, “ he paused, thinking. “Yeah, that is right because I have Charms and History of Magic before it. To be honest, I’m kind of nervous because Potions is probably my worst subject. Like, I’m pretty decent at all my other subjects, but this one I suck at.” In regard to most people, Ryan couldn’t wait for them to stop talking; but when he listened to Brendon ramble he found it endearing. 

Ryan had opened his mouth to reply when Travie spoke up, “Well, thats just perfect because our Ryan here is like a potions master. Whenever I get stuck on my homework, he always knows the answer.” As he felt his ears warm, Ryan saw Travie wink at him from across the table. Sometimes, just sometimes, Ryan really hated his friends. 

\--

When lunch ended, everyone had classes at opposite sides of the castle, so Ryan ended up walking alone to Herbology. This year he had Herbology with the Slytherins. He knew a few people but no one who was a close friend or anything. It was okay though; Professor Ackerman always had ways to make class interesting and to go by fast. 

After Herbology, he had Charms. Luckily, Ryan was right that Sisky was in his class. He told his Beater that practice was tomorrow and made a mental note to remind him again the next day. Sisky’s short-term memory was never that great, but when he joined the team, the bludgers really got to him. The class passed slowly and Ryan was on the edge of his seat, inching towards the door, by the time the bell rung.

Ryan was happy that his favorite class was last because at least he had something to look forward to throughout the day. However, as he walked to the dungeons, he thought of all the homework his professors gave him that day and groaned. He was glad practice was tomorrow because he was hoping to spend some time tonight in the library finishing off this week’s homework. Ryan hated having homework, especially with having quidditch practice, so he prefered to read ahead and finish a week of homework all in one go. 

Before Ryan walked into the potions dungeon, he almost forgot about Brendon sharing the class with him. Pleasantly reminded, he saw the empty seat next to Brendon and headed over. Ryan saw Spencer smirking a row over and pretended not to notice. When he sat down, Brendon gave him a wide smile and Ryan couldn’t help but smile back. 

After everyone got settled in and Professor gave the class their first task, Ryan realized how much Brendon was not kidding about being terrible at Potions. The kid had no technique and was way too loose with the directions. Their textbook clearly said “thinly slice the gillyweed”, but Brendon not only couldn’t slice them thinly, his slices were completely uneven. After fixing the mistake, Ryan realized he couldn’t get mad at him. Brendon looked like a lost puppy, how could anyone be mad at that?

So after a couple more misreadings, Ryan decided enough was enough. He was going to teach his friend how to not-suck at Potions. Unfortunately, explaining what the directions meant and showing Brendon how to cut, chop and slice ingredients correctly took a lot longer than expected. Most of the time, Ryan was the first one done in class, but now he was one of the last. This didn’t mean much to him, considering he still had the best potion in class...and the fact that Brendon went from looking like a lost puppy to an eager one. When Ryan told him that he chopped the fairy wing correctly, Brendon grinned so wide, it was blinding. Although rewarding, he hoped he wouldn’t have to do this every class. Ryan liked using the extra time before everyone else caught up on the classwork to start on his homework but he didn’t mind spending more time with Brendon. 

\--

The next day in Ancient Runes, two owls flew through one of the classroom’s open windows. One owl dropped a scroll in front of Ryan, and the other in front of Jon. Students never got owls outside of the Great Hall during mail time and the owls at the owlery weren’t allowed to be used during class time. The two fifth years looked at each other; this could only mean one thing. 

When Gabe said the invitations would be sent out in a few days, Ryan hadn’t expected to get one the very next day.

The two started to open their scrolls, only to have them fly out of their hands. Ryan looked up to see a very angry Professor Lazzara setting their scrolls on his desk. Just as Jon started to object, their professor sternly said, “No. I will not allow such basic rules to be broken in my classroom. However, I will be nice and hand these back to you once class is over.”

Much to Ryan’s chagrin, the rest of the class was staring at the two with amusement. Some of the other students snickered and Ryan shifted in his seat uncomfortably. He didn’t like it when people stared at him like this.

Once their Professor started lecturing, the class stopped paying attention to Ryan and Jon. During class, Ryan couldn’t take his eyes off the two scrolls. He thought they must be invites to Gabe and Pete’s party, but he couldn’t be sure until he opened them. 

Neither Pete nor Gabe ever used owls to deliver their invites. Last year, they mostly used patronuses to spread the word. A cobra and an otter patronus could be seen in the halls for once a week every month whispering their plans. Unfortunately, after a few parties, the teachers began to catch on to the translucent figures ghosting down the halls. Not only that, but it was hard to control who heard the message, and resulted in a lot more people showing up than expected.

Eventually class ended and Professor Lazzara begrudgingly gave Jon and Ryan their scrolls. Eager to know what the scroll said, they rushed out of class and found a secluded spot in the hallway. Ryan quickly opened his scroll, only to be disappointed. To his left, he heard Jon say, “Um, dude, is yours blank too?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys, sorry this is late! its unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine. feel free to point them out.

This didn’t make any sense, why would Pete and Gabe risk detention to send blank scrolls? If a teacher found out someone had used owls to deliver messages during school, they would have gotten detention for a week. Especially if the teacher found out the messages were invitations to a party held after curfew.

“Yeah, there’s nothing on mine. Do you think it needs a charm to show the message? Or are they just fucking with us?” Ryan replied, bewildered. 

He knew it was annoying that extra people showed up to the parties last year, but sending a blank scroll seemed to go a little far on the security. Jon immediately pulled out his wand and tried a revealing charm on his invitation, but the paper stayed empty. He sighed and tried a different spell, but nothing happened. Ryan started to think of ways he could try to find out the hidden message when he realized that he came across a serum last night in his readings that might work.

“Wait, I think I might know a potion that works on hidden messages. I was reading up on some for my homework last night, so this is perfect. I’ll try to make it once classes are over or something.” Ryan said. 

Jon nodded, and replied, “Yeah, that sounds good. Keep me updated because this is weird, even for Gabe and Pete.”

To that, Ryan nodded and the two fifth years started walking towards their next classes.

During lunch, Ryan found out that only Jon and he got invites. Spencer only shrugged; he knew he’d get one. Spencer and Jon got invited to every party since Ryan joined the team in his third year. Brendon, however, looked nervous. They hadn’t become good friends until the end of last year, so Brendon only got invited to the last party Gabe threw. And that was only because Brendon was there when Gabe was talking to them about it. Unfortunately, Brendon got sick the night of the bash and spent the night in the infirmary. So, this was the first time Brendon would have gotten an official invite to one of their parties. 

“So, wait. They’re blank? Can I see?” Spencer asked. 

Jon handed him his scroll. Brendon leaned in to watch Spencer unroll it. Finding that there was nothing on it, Spencer flipped it over and looked on the other side. Still, the scroll was blank. Spencer pulled his wand out and asked, “Have you tried a charm on it?”

Ryan nodded, grabbing for an apple, “Yeah, we tried a few. I was gonna make this serum tonight; it’s supposed to make hidden messages appear. I read about it in a book last night.”

The corners of Spencer’s mouth turned up in an amused smile, “Already spending your nights in the library? You’re such a Ravenclaw, Ry.” 

As if on cue, Ryan let out an over exaggerated sigh and said, “Yeah, whatever, Spin. I like the library, it’s nice. Anyways, when do you think you’re gonna get your invite?” 

Brendon shifted uncomfortably as he ate his sandwich. Spencer poured himself some more water and shrugged, “I dunno. Probably next class. You said you got yours through owl, right?” 

Ryan nodded. 

“Then I’ll probably get it during Charms or something. I can’t imagine an owl flying to the dungeons during Potions.” Jon laughed and Ryan smiled, it would be funny to see an owl flying through the dungeons. Across the table, Ryan noticed that Brendon was quieter than usual.

“So do you think you’ll get your invitation in History of Magic then?” Ryan prompted. 

Brendon’s lips pursed as he shrugged, “Well, maybe..I mean, I might not even get an invite.” Usually Brendon wouldn’t shut up, so such a short response was odd.

“What do you mean?” Ryan asked, frowning. “Of course you’ll be invited. You’re our friend and Gabe and Pete like you, there’s no reason for you not to get invited.”

Brendon fidgeted with his sleeve, trying hard not to look Ryan in the eye, “I don’t know, I just kind of feel like they won’t invite me. I mean, it’s not like I ever really talk to them when you’re not around...” 

Ryan’s heart lurched a bit. Brendon was always so unconditionally happy, seeing the Hufflepuff doubting himself was upsetting, “Well, if you walked up to them and started talking, I highly doubt they would mind. You’re really cool, Bren.” 

Brendon gave him a small smile and the topic was dropped for the rest of lunch. 

In Herbology, Ryan helped juice a flesh-eating plant. Apparently, holding down an unwilling, spastic plant while his partner tried to pry it’s mouth open to juice was difficult. The plant reminded Ryan of a mandrake, but with less screaming and more wild limbs. He was very happy to leave once the period was over. 

By the time Potions came, Ryan felt really tired. Charms had practically put him to sleep. He was happy that his professor didn’t assign him homework that he hadn’t already done.

As he walked into the classroom, Ryan passed Spencer, who was sitting next to Linda again, and waved. Spencer had been prolonging asking her out since the year before, saying he didn’t want to make his classes with her awkward. It didn’t make sense to Ryan, but to each their own, he figured. 

The class passed quickly enough. Brendon still seemed a little down and Ryan didn’t want to push it so he took it upon himself to make the potion for the day. Next to him, Brendon watched silently. With twenty minutes of class to spare, Ryan finished the potion and started the homework. Here and there he tried to help Brendon, but the Hufflepuff didn’t seem too into conversation. 

 

When Brendon and Ryan arrived at the Hufflepuff table, Spencer and Jon were already there. The entrees were on the table and Ryan was excited to see that tonight’s theme was Italian. Jon was already on his fourth piece of garlic bread when Spencer said, “So I got my invited in Charms, just like I thought! Did you get yours Brendon?” 

Ryan knew Spencer was excited, but across the table Brendon’s face dropped and Ryan really wanted to punch his best friend. When Brendon mumbled a “no”, Spencer immediately took his excitement down a few notches. 

Jon, not really knowing what to say, attempted to with, “Well, it’s not going to be that great anyways...um, I mean like it’s just a whole bunch of people getting too drunk and being really annoying.” 

Jon gave him a half smile and Brendon kind of returned it. Seeing Brendon slumped over and obviously upset aggravated Ryan. This wasn’t fair, he deserved an invitation.

“Yeah, I mean it’s the first party of the year so it might suck. Like we could just all hang out that night instead, if you wanted?” Spencer tried. Brendon was in the middle of saying something about how it was okay, and it wasn’t that big of a deal, when Ryan got up and started walking over to the Slytherin table. When Ryan glanced back, Spencer was giving him a weird look.

At the table, Ryan found Gabe and Pete easily. Gabe stuck out because he was so tall and Pete stuck out because he was too loud for his own good. 

“Okay so what the fuck is up with you guys not inviting Brendon?” Ryan exclaimed, obviously angry. Gabe and Pete looked surprised. Patrick looked shocked and William’s mouth hung open. It was weird to see Ryan expressing this much emotion. 

“Wow, Ross. Not like you to get so worked up about something,” Gabe mentioned. 

“Or someone...” Pete nudged Gabe with his arm. Patrick’s eyebrows furrowed, something was definitely up. William looked back and forth from Gabe to Ryan, trying to understand what had happened. 

“I just don’t understand why you haven’t invited him. It’s not fair that you invited Spencer and Jon and not him.” Ryan sighed. He didn’t think he would be acting any differently if this was about any of his other friends, so the smirk from Gabe was not appreciated.

“What are you talking about? We sen--” Pete was cut off by Gabe whispering in his ear. His confusion was replaced with a look of understanding. Pete thought for a second before trying again. 

“Um, sorry man, did you want us to invite him? We didn't realize Brendon was that important to you," Pete said, raising an eyebrow. 

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean? He’s my friend, of course he’s important to me! Everyone else gets invited but not Brendon? That’s fucked, Pete and you know it," Ryan yelled. A few people turned to stare at him. William’s jaw hung even lower and Patrick’s eyes widened. Ryan’s palms started to get clammy as he realized how much he raised his voice.

"Jeez, I guess we just didn't realize you and Brendon were that close," Gabe chuckled. 

"W-what?” Ryan stammered. All he wanted was for Brendon to get invited.

"I mean, I heard you guys have been hanging out recently but..." 

Pete grinned suddenly. "Ryan Ross, you don't have a crush on Brendon Urie, do you?"

Oh fuck, Ryan thought.

“N-No. I don’t.” Ryan managed to reply. The last thing he needed was for Gabe and Pete to make fun of him for this.

“Aw, don’t be embarrassed, Rybear. I mean, you were totally right about him. Those lips were made for dick.” Gabe winked. He didn’t know why, but Ryan felt a pool of anger form in his stomach. He didn’t think anyone should be talking about Brendon like that, but for some reason it felt worse hearing it from Gabe. 

Ryan didn’t know what to say, so as Gabe started to sip his drink, Ryan turned the hot cocoa into mud. Gabe spit it out and mumbled a “touché fucker”, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. Ryan could hear the others laughing at Gabe as he walked away. 

Ryan had quidditch practice later that night. The news of Ryan’s little blow up at dinner and had gotten around, so no one was surprised when Ryan talked back to Pete during their huddle. Most of the time, he and Pete would have some witty banter going on about plays or team improvements, but that night Ryan’s banter wasn’t as witty as it was just plain rude. Pete didn’t seem to take it to heart, though. When Ryan said something about how dumb a formation was, Pete just smiled softly and said, “Gabe really got to you, huh?” 

When Ryan didn’t respond, Pete ordered the team to warm up and got on his broom. That night Ryan couldn’t find the snitch. His flying wasn’t as graceful as it usually was and that made him even more upset. Eventually Ryan just gave up and Pete gave him a pat on the back when Ryan landed on the field.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahh! sorry this is late again but I would like to thank [Rachel](johntops.tumblr.com) again for being the best beta <3

The next morning, Brendon still hadn’t gotten an invite and apparently Ryan forgot to make the serum last night. Brendon tried not to let the lack of invitation bother him as he walked to his next class. At least Spencer and Jon shared the subject with him, Brendon thought. He really liked Care Of Magical Creatures, too. So far his class had been taking care of Sneazles, these cat-like creatures with the tail of a lion. Every group of three got their own to take care of, and Jon and Spencer let Brendon name theirs’ Penny Lane. 

Today they had gotten to feed her and analyze how she did with the other Sneazles. So far, Penny was doing great and Brendon was ecstatic. He really liked animals and Penny reminded him of his own cat at home. When he found out he got to pick a pet for Hogwarts, Brendon really wanted to buy a cat, but he ended up buying an owl out of practicality.

After they had written down their data and turned it into their Professor, the three friends left for their next class. Brendon was about to walk into class when he saw Gabe approaching him. At first Brendon thought Gabe must be looking at someone else, but as Gabe came closer he called out, “Oh, hey Brendon!”

Slightly surprised, Brendon said hello back. Gabe placed his hand on Brendon’s shoulder, leaned in and said, “I didn’t know you had a class around here.”

He might have been wrong, but Brendon could have sworn he saw Gabe wink at someone over Brendon’s shoulder. He didn’t understand why Gabe was paying so much attention to him, it felt weird. As he shuffled his feet, Brendon said, “Uh, yeah I have my DADA class now.” 

Gabe smiled and trailed his hand down to the small of Brendon’s back and said, “Well, it’s always dope to see you around, amigo” and left. 

Stunned, Brendon, turned around to watch Gabe leave, but instead saw Ryan across the hallway, looking angry. Noticing Brendon watching him, Ryan quickly walked the other direction. Something about the situation didn’t feel right. Why would Gabe not give him an invitation and then practically flirt with him like that? Brendon liked physical contact, but that was just weird. 

During his class, Brendon couldn’t help himself from trying to piece together Gabe’s actions and Ryan’s moods. It bothered him all the way to lunch, where he sat at the Slytherin table with Ryan and the rest of his friends. 

As he served himself some salad, Brendon listened to Spencer talking about how insane their Herbology teacher was that day. If Brendon was honest, he kind of felt Spencer deserved to get yelled at for not helping juice their plant. It was scary, yeah, but not helping made it even more difficult to get the serum they needed for their grade. Jon sided with Spencer while Ryan called him out on it, “So basically, you were a little bitch about it and made Brendon do all the work?”

Hearing Ryan stand up for him made Brendon smile. Though, pretty much anything Ryan did made Brendon smile. It was hard not to, Ryan had the cutest button nose and it made anything he said at least 10% better.

Spencer sighed and said, “Okay, I wasn’t being a little bitch about it.” He paused and then turned to Brendon, “But I am sorry that I put you in that position, it wasn’t fair.” 

Brendon waved him off, “Oh, it’s not that big of a deal. We got the grade, so it’s all good. Don’t worry about it.” 

Across the table, Patrick was asking Pete about the party on Friday. 

“So wait, I thought you said it was going to be small, how many people have you guys invited?” Brendon felt Ryan tense up next him as Patrick spoke. 

“We basically invited, like, everyone we know; it’s going to be one of the best parties yet!” Pete replied, as he wrapped an arm around his boyfriend’s waist. 

Ryan dropped his fork and Brendon tried to pretend he was busy eating his salad. He wanted to like Pete but he didn’t get why Pete would say something like that in front of him, especially since he apparently invited everyone but Brendon.

“Yeah, like this year we’re getting even more food from the house elves. I’m having them make us this huge cake with, like, a different flavor for each tier. It’s gonna be awesome, hombre.” Gabe explained. 

Brendon frowned, he didn’t like mistreating house elves, no matter how much he liked cake. 

“That’s not really okay,” Brendon mumbled. 

He thought he said it quietly, but everyone turned to look at him. 

“What’s not okay?” Gabe asked, obviously confused. Brendon guessed, to Gabe, his party ideas were pretty great.

“I-I mean, mistreating house elves isn’t cool. I love cake, but that seems like a lot of extra work for them. Especially if it’s supposed to be for all those people you said you invited.” Brendon managed to say. 

He didn’t like confrontation, but he also felt the need to stand up for what he thought was right. 

Luckily, Ryan backed him up, “Yeah, dude. I get taking some snacks and maybe having the house elves make you, like, a dip or something, but that doesn’t seem fair to have them make you such a lavish cake.” 

It was times like these that Brendon just wanted to grab Ryan and kiss him, but he decided it was probably a bad idea. Sometimes, Brendon felt like the Ravenclaw might return his feelings, but every time Brendon was even a little bit flirty, Ryan backed away. Brendon didn’t know what to think, so he tried his best to ignore how he felt about his moody friend. 

This time, Pete replied with, “Okay, maybe we could tone it down a little bit. I didn’t realize you two were such house elf lovers.” 

Ryan glared at Pete and Patrick gave him an apologetic smile. 

Soon lunch was over and Gabe apparently thought it was a good idea to tousle every one’s hair as he left. Except when he got to Brendon, instead of just messing up his hair, Gabe held the back of Brendon’s head with two hands and kissed the top of his hair, making an exaggerated smacking sound. Again, Brendon was confused. Why was he the only one singled out? Once Gabe was gone, Ryan sighed and said, “I’m sorry about Gabe. He’s been weird lately.”

Not knowing how to respond, Brendon just shrugged and got up with everyone else.

\--

When he had arrived at Potions, Brendon saw that Ryan was busy talking with their professor and sat down at their usual table. When the two finished talking, Ryan started to walk over to their table and Brendon noticed Ryan was looking particularly confident. 

Around third year, when Brendon first started seeing Ryan around school, he had thought Ryan must have been the biggest asshole. This was mostly because Ryan had the worst case of resting bitch face that Brendon had ever seen. Once Spencer introduced them, Brendon started to pick up on the little changes in Ryan’s face and realized that Ryan wasn’t apathetic or rude, just less expressive. 

As he sat down, Ryan explained, “Okay, so today we were supposed to make this potion that I aced last year, but I managed to convince Professor Parnes to let us try out the revealing serum for the invites. Which, by the way, you will get one. There’s no way you won’t.” 

Brendon tried to believe Ryan’s words and be excited as well, but somehow he was still feeling doubtful. 

Once Parnes finished explaining their task for the day, Ryan went to the cabinet to gather what they needed for the potion. Brendon looked over the instructions in Ryan’s book and found himself doing a double take; these instructions were more advanced than the ones he was used to. Lifting the cover, Brendon realized the book wasn’t their standard fifth year textbook. 

“It’s this book I found in the library last night. Don’t make fun of me, but I kind of like to read potion recipes for fun,” Ryan said as he walked back, arms full of different ingredients. 

He must have noticed Brendon checking out the book. Brendon envied that Ryan so obviously excelled at this subject. It made it easy for Ryan to know what he wanted to do after Hogwarts, versus Brendon having no idea. He did well at most subjects, so that didn’t help much when it came to narrowing it down. Brendon loved Transfiguration and Charms, but he couldn’t see himself as an Auror. While on the other hand, he could see himself taking care of magical creatures, but he knew that wasn’t much of a career. 

Since his parents had realized Brendon couldn’t get into Medical or Law school with a Hogwarts diploma, they still expected their son to have a respectable, high paying job. It kept Brendon up at night sometimes. He wanted to appease his family and still carry on their good name, but he also wanted to be his own person. 

Like last class, Ryan took his time to explain what each instruction meant and helped Brendon carry them out correctly. On one hand it made Brendon worried that he was taking up so much of Ryan’s time, but on the other hand, Brendon really liked that Ryan was paying so much attention to him. He knew he shouldn’t and he knew Ryan was nice to pretty much everyone, but still, it made Brendon feel special. 

Halfway through the class, their serum was starting to look promising. Brendon could tell Ryan was itching to use it to figure out the message. Though, instead of rushing to get it done, Ryan made sure to implement each step carefully. Every now and then someone in their class would look over with a curious glance, but no one bothered them. 

Around the final steps, their professor came over to check if they had the serum just about right. Luckily, their hard work paid off, and as Ryan dropped the final ingredient into the cauldron, the serum turned into the perfect shade of silver. 

Clapping, Professor Parnes said, “Well done, boys! I’m excited to see if this works out for you.”   
Ryan pulled out the blank paper from his bookbag and set it on the table. He then poured the mixture into a small vile and dabbed a little onto the paper. The three of them watched to see what would happen.

To their disappointment, the paper only steamed a little bit and no writing appeared. To Brendon’s right, Ryan sighed and Parnes pursed his lips. 

“Well, thats too bad. I’m sure it wasn’t because of your serum, it was one of the best I’ve seen made. Good luck figuring it out!” and with that, their professor turned to check on the other students. 

“Wait, what would have happened if the writing did appear and he saw what was on the scroll? Wouldn’t he tell the other teachers about the party and it would get shut down?” Brendon inquired. 

He thought all teachers were supposed to report stuff like that. Ryan just smiled and said, “He loves me, no way. And to be honest, I don’t think he’d care. He’d be too happy that I got an advanced potion to work.” 

“So, what are you going to do now? Got any other ideas?” Brendon asked. Gabe said the party was on Friday, so they only had a couple more days to figure out where it was going to be. 

The corners of Ryan’s lips turned down, “No. I’m fresh out of ideas. Maybe Spencer or Jon thought of something. Worst comes to worst, we might be able to just ask where it is...maybe...” 

Ryan didn’t look so confident, so Brendon hoped, for Ryan’s sake, that they figured it out.

 

\--

Brendon was excited to see the Great Hall had stuffed red peppers for dinner that night. The house elves were pretty good at making vegetarian options for him and the other vegetable-inclined students, but Brendon had a thing for stuffed peppers. Sitting at the Hufflepuff table, Brendon listened to Spencer and Ryan talk about how great some wizarding band was at Hogsmeade last year. A lot of people went, but Brendon had blown his money on a ticket for a really popular muggle band already. He tried to get his parents to buy him a ticket to the Hogsmead show, but since his parents already disliked Brendon going out to shows, the idea of supporting him seeing a wizarding band was even worse. 

So instead of joining in, Brendon decided to live vicariously through Ryan and Spencer’s stories. Next to him, Jon pointed his fork at Brendon’s plate and asked, “Okay, I’m curious, how does your pepper taste to my burger? You look way too happy to be eating a vegetable.” 

As he glanced at Jon’s burger with two patties and a few slices of bacon, Brendon grimaced. He was so happy he decided to go vegetarian a couple years back. It was a hard switch, but after finding the right alternatives and a few decent protein sources, Brendon never looked back. The idea of eating a once-living animal repulsed him, though he did understand that the majority of the population didn’t agree with him. 

Cutting another piece of his pepper, Brendon smiled and said, “Oh my god, you have no idea how good this is. Like, it’s filled with quinoa and spinach and carrots and chickpeas and a whole bunch of other stuff. So, hmm, I guess I don’t really miss meat?” 

He shrugged and took a bite, savoring his baked pepper, “I’d say this is better, but it’s not for everyone I guess.” 

Jon started to respond but Brendon had stopped paying attention when he noticed an envelope floating over to him. As it stopped to hover over his plate, Brendon reached out to grab the hovering object. By the weight and texture of it, Brendon guessed the paper was expensive. On the front, Brendon’s name was written in an elegant script. Jon, Spencer and Ryan were all looking at him. A few other people at their table were craning their necks to see what it was. This was an unusual occurrence; students only got mail at mailtime in the morning, and even then, all mail was delivered by owls. 

Across the table, Spencer urged, “Go on, open it!” 

Brendon didn’t need to be told twice; he quickly flipped over the envelope to find it had been stamped with a Slytherin wax seal. Brendon frowned, but heard Ryan mumble something that sounded like “that fucking prick”. Opening it, Brendon found the same blank piece of parchment that the others got. 

“Wait, is this my invitation?” Brendon asked, confused. 

It seemed like the same thing the others had gotten, but he didn’t get his invite by owl, like the others. Looking up, Brendon saw Ryan facing the Slytherin table. Gabe winked at him and Ryan flipped him off, resulting in Gabe fluttering his eyelashes, trying to look as innocent as possible. 

Turning back around, Ryan grumbled, “That bastard.” 

Sighing, he continued. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s your invitation to the party. Gabe’s just being a dick.” 

“Well, maybe if you’d just admit to it, they’d stop,” Spencer laughed. 

Not getting the joke, Brendon looked in between Spencer and a now glaring Ryan. 

“What are you guys talking about? I thought you’d be happy I got an invite...” Brendon said, feeling a little bummed that his friends were acting so weird.

“And we are, we promise, it's just...” Jon stopped, looking at Ryan to continue. 

When Ryan sighed and looked away, Jon said, “Gabe seems to be using you to tease Ryan.”

“About what? Why would he be using me?” 

This wasn’t adding up. Had something been going on that Brendon didn’t know about? He didn’t like the look of pity that Jon was giving him. He knew he wasn’t as tight with Ryan as Spencer or Jon, but Brendon had thought that he would be included in whatever was going on. Spencer was giving Ryan a very pointed look when the Ravenclaw let out an exasperated sigh.

“So, Gabe wants me to admit to this, uh...thing, I guess I’ll say, that might not even be true” he added, to of which both Jon and Spencer rolled their eyes and said, “but is.” 

Sighing again, Ryan continued, “and I really don’t want to. It’s not that big of a deal, so don’t worry about it okay, Bren?”

Biting the inside of his lip, Brendon nodded. He liked it when Ryan shortened his name, it was cute. Ryan was one of the only people that called him “Bren” and it usually made Brendon’s stomach flutter, but not this time. He didn’t like being left out of the loop. Deciding not to push it, he went back to eating his pepper. It didn’t taste as good now and Brendon was disappointed. Jon patted his shoulder and quietly said, “I’m sure you’ll find out sooner or later, but Ryan’s a bit of a stubborn asshole, so maybe more later than sooner.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lol how long??? did this chapter take????? a year???
> 
> i feel bad because I wrote this and the next three chapters a year ago but never published them (im sorry) so here you go!!!!
> 
> (also my friends made comments on the writing document and I might have missed some of it so if there's random commentary in the middle of the story, just pretend it isn't there oops)

On Friday morning, Ryan felt dejected. None of them has figured out how to read their invitation. When he asked Sisky and William, neither of them couldn’t figure it out either. William said that all of his friends got blank invitations too. The last thing Ryan wanted to do was to ask Pete or Gabe what the invitation said. He figured if William didn’t ask Gabe, he shouldn’t either. 

As he rounded to corner before the Great Hall, Ryan saw Brendon on the other side of the hallway. 

“Brendon!” Ryan called, walking over. Brendon stopped and waved. When Ryan approached, Brendon yawned and said, “Good morning, sleep well?”

Ryan replied and they started walking into the Hall. He saw his two best friends at the Hufflepuff table with Mikey, Frank and Ray, another Hufflepuff.

As it turned out, none of them could figure out the invitation either. 

“So, even if I actually figure out where the party is, I’m probably going to leave early,” Frank said, cutting up his waffle. Next to him, Ray raised his eyebrows, “Why? Its the first party of the year?”

Frank shrugged and looked down, “Well, I maybe asked Gee when he was free to talk about my career as an Auror and tonight was the only time he had free..”

Ray shook his head and Mikey snickered, making heat rise in Frank’s cheeks.

“So, you guys are gonna fuck right?” Ryan teased. Across from him, Jon was laughing.

Grabbing another waffle, Frank smirked and said, “No, we’re just going to go over what I should focus on this year.”

Ryan rolled his eyes, “Uh huh, and then fuck.”

Mikey was grinning as he took a sip of his coffee. It wasn’t like Ryan was making unbelievable claims, seeing as Frank pretty much eyefucked Professor Way anytime they were in the same room. However, it was doubtful that either would make a move anytime soon.

From the looks of it, Frank was about to make a snarky reply when the owls started pouring into the Hall. It was mail time. Ryan dreaded this time of the morning because everyone got letters from home, except for him. Sometimes the Smiths wrote him, but not often. They always gave him birthday and Christmas gifts, though. It was sweet of them to take him in like they have and Ryan didn’t take it for granted. 

A large package fell in front of Ray and the group turned to see what it was. As Ray was unknotting the twine, he explained, “I forgot some of my books, so it looks like my parents sent them to me.” 

Ryan frowned, he doubted that his dad would do that for him. Before he could start brooding over his father’s poor parenting skills, a loud screech was heard across the Great Hall. 

Floating in the air above William was a howler. 

“William Beckett, you naughty boy. I cannot believe you used such a terrible spell on your dear friend, Gabriel Saporta. It is indecent of you to use similis irrumasti and I hope that absolutely nobody follows your lead,” the letter said. William’s face was in between shock, embarrassment and amusement. Once it ended, everyone turned to look at each other. 

“So, thats the spell right? For the invites?” Jon inquired. Everyone nodded or mumbled in agreement.

Next to him Ryan felt Mikey shaking with laughter and narrowed his eyes, “What’s so funny?”

Mikey tried to calm himself down and managed, “I mean, Gabe is right. I do like that, but damn. I feel bad for all the ones who don’t.” 

Brendon looked confused and Spencer cocked his head. What was he talking about?

Smiling, Mikey continued, “I know Latin. The spell literally means ‘I like to suck dick’. So you guys all have to say you like to suck dick to be invited to the party.” 

Ryan and Frank grinned and started laughing with Mikey. It was funny, a little bit childish, but still funny. This was exactly the type of thing Gabe or Pete, the kings of the school, would do. 

Expectedly, across the table Ray, Spencer and Jon all rolled their eyes. Brendon wore a small smile and Ryan was glad he didn’t react as adversely as he did when Ryan’s hook ups were mentioned the other day. If Brendon were homophobic, he wouldn’t be acting so calm about this. 

Once breakfast ended, they all tried the spell. As predicted, the time and place of the party appeared on the parchment: the Room of Requirement at 9pm that night. 

\--

The party was lavish. The Room of Requirement had been transformed into a huge space with multiple wings stemming off from it. The walls were brick and dimly lit with fairy lights. In the middle of the main room was a dance floor, already crowded with people dancing. On one side of the room was a bar and on the other was the DJ. Smiling, Ryan realized that all the decorations were either green, blue or silver.

Next to him, Brendon’s eyes were wide, taking the scene in. Jon clamped Ryan on the back and said, “Gonna go find some cute girls, see you guys later.”

Ryan suspected that was the last he was going to see of Jon that night. Brendon hung by his side while Spencer looked around the room, searching. 

Ryan spotted what he was looking for before his friend did. Across the room, Linda was holding a drink and talking to Keltie, the sixth year Gryffindor. Nudging Spencer, Ryan said, “Just go talk to her. Tell her you like her, or don’t. You could just start making out and maybe she’ll get the picture.”

Spencer glared at his best friend. “Oh it’s that easy, huh? Then why aren’t you doing it?” He snapped, but after a second of consideration Spencer said, “But yeah, maybe I will go talk to her..” and left.

Sighing, Ryan replied, “Whatever, lets just go get drinks, Bren.” Looking a little distracted, Brendon nodded and followed Ryan to the bar along the side of the room. It had the look of a real bar, but in reality it was just a guy serving whatever alcohol Gabe or Pete could find. Usually it was some sort of liquor and draught and this night was no different. After getting their daisyroot draught, Ryan and Brendon headed towards one of the couches in the corner. 

Ryan wasn’t much of a dancer, so he usually steered clear of the dance floor. Mostly, he liked to sit and talk with his friends, catch up with people he didn’t have classes with or maybe pick up a guy or two. Walking behind Brendon towards the couch, Ryan’s eyes greedily roamed over the Hufflepuff. He wanted to thank whatever god that existed for skinny jeans because fuck, Brendon’s ass looked amazing. His shirt was a little short and when Brendon moved through the crowd, Ryan could see the patch of skin just above his waistband. 

Finding an open couch, they sat down. Around them were a few people Ryan recognized and few he didn’t. Leaning on a table near them, a fiery red headed Gryffindor was talking to a taller, bearded guy that Ryan knew as Jeremy York. He was a Chaser on the Gryffindor team. 

Brendon nodded towards the wall and asked, “So wait, what’s up with William and Gabe? Are they a thing or something?” Ryan followed his eyes and sure enough, he saw the two pushed up against the wall. Gabe’s arm was wrapped around William’s waist, pulling him closer and kissing his neck. 

Shaking his head, Ryan replied with, “Oh no they’re not together, or at least not really. They both sleep with other people, but at the end of the night they always go home with each other.” He paused to sip his drink, “We’re all kind of waiting for them to be together for real. But I mean, whatever makes them happy, you know?” 

Brendon nodded, still trying to make sense of it, “So the only people who are actually dating are Pete and Patrick?”

“Oh, yeah. Those two have been together forever. They’re kind of perfect for each other, don’t you think?” Brendon smiled and nodded, “The only other people that have kind of dated are William and Travie back in their fourth year and sort of Mikey and Gabe a couple years back. Those two were a trainwreck, non-stop arguing and a lot of angry sex. But they’re all good now.” 

Bringing the bottle to his lips, Brendon asked, “Wait, is Travie into guys? I’ve only heard of him with girls.” 

Finishing off the draught, Ryan replied, “Yeah, he mostly prefers girls but once in a while you’ll see him with a guy. He’s seriously the sweetest guy you’ll meet. He’s good friends with all of his ex’s. ”

Seeing that Brendon was just about done with his drink, Ryan motioned to grab another and the two got up together. 

At the bar, they were waiting for their third round of drinks when a guy came up to Ryan and said, “Hey, you’re Ryan right? Gabe said you were real cool.” 

Ryan looked him up and down. Not bad, he thought. The guy was blonde with toned arms and a sharp jaw line. It wasn’t hard to see where this was going, Gabe never sent guys over unless they were looking to hookup. Leaning into the bar, Ryan said, “Yeah, I’m Ryan, and you are?”

Smiling coyly, the guy said, “Oh, I’m Eric. I’m in Gabe’s History class. He said you’re really into Potions, so I was wondering if maybe you could give me some tips?”

He was cute, he really was but Ryan was fine without meeting a guy tonight. He was enjoying his time with Brendon, but then Eric looked up at him through his lashes and Ryan was sold. 

Glancing over at Brendon, who was watching the exchange with wide-eyes, Ryan nodded and said, “Yeah, maybe we go some place quieter?”

The look of disbelief on Brendon’s face would have made his stomach sink if the draught wasn’t already getting to him. It wasn’t like Ryan should care what Brendon thought of him, they were friends, yeah, but that was it. Ryan thought that maybe he should feel bad for leaving his friend behind, but it wasn’t like Brendon didn’t know anyone else at the party. If some girl came up to Brendon and whisked him away, Ryan wouldn’t be upset, right? Ryan tried to convince himself of this as he walked away, with the other guy, Eric, in tow. 

Ryan swiftly maneuvered through the crowd, heading towards a hallway by the back of the room. Gabe and Pete never had a party where there weren’t places made for this kind of thing. Once they got to the dark hallway, Ryan grabbed Eric’s hand and led him into an empty room, closing the door behind them. As soon as the door closed Ryan smiled and pushed Eric against the nearest wall, kissing him roughly. The blonde wasted no time and kissed back hungrily, licking Ryan’s bottom lip. Smiling, Ryan parted his lips to the eager tongue.

The guy was a good kisser, Ryan thought and decided to thank Gabe tomorrow. He started pulling on the guy’s shirt, silently asking for him to take it off. Eric happily obliged, breaking the kiss. Ryan had a second to look him over as he took off his own shirt. Eric had a tattoo over his heart, but Ryan didn’t care enough to see what it was. 

He turned Eric around, pushing him against the wall. Eric undid his belt quickly and Ryan was already tugging on Eric’s tight pants, pushing them down mid-thigh. After pulling his own pants down, Ryan kissed up Eric’s neck and rubbed his dick against Eric’s ass. The blond eagerly pushed back against Ryan’s dick while Ryan smiled into his shoulder. Holding Eric’s hip with one hand, Ryan reached for his wand, casting a protection and lubrication spell and pushed in. 

He paused, waiting for Eric to readjust before starting a rhythm. Ryan knew he was a lot to take but Eric didn’t even whine when Ryan went deeper, he just took it. Going faster, Ryan reached around to match his pace with his hand. Somewhere in between the “oh fuck”s and the “yes, yes right there”s Ryan’s mind started to wander. He started thinking about how Brendon would sound, how tight he would feel, the way Ryan’s name would sound on his lips. He felt Eric come over his fingertips and Ryan wasn’t far behind, thrusting a few more times before letting go. 

Trying to push the thought of Brendon of his mind, Ryan pulled up his pants and buckled his belt. He looked over to see Eric doing the same and kissed him lightly. 

“Thanks for that, hope you ace your Potions test now,” Ryan winked, smoothing his hair down and left the room. He considered finding Spencer but thought he’d leave his best friend alone, hoping Spencer was with Linda. Since Jon was definitely with some girl, Ryan decided to leave the party. The last person Ryan wanted to see was Brendon after practically cumming to the thought of him, so he kept his head down as he walked past a crowd of people and out the door.


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning, Ryan was tired. He wasn’t quite hungover, but he was still a bit groggy. Passing through the Great Hall’s doors, he saw his friend sitting alone and walked over. Ryan yawned as he sat down next to Jon at the Gryffindor table. Turning to face his friend, he noticed the marks on Jon’s neck and laughed, “Have fun last night, Jwalk?” 

“You have no idea, man. These two girls were insane,” Jon grinned. Out of all of Ryan’s friends not in a relationship, Jon definitely got the most action. At every party, it was pretty much guaranteed that Jon would sleep with at least one girl, if not two or even two together. He wasn’t really one for relationships and that was fine. 

“Insane, huh? Better than that Beuxbaton girl last year?” Ryan asked. While he didn’t really care for details about straight sex anymore than Jon cared for details on gay sex, they still liked to share stories. 

Sipping his coffee, Jon nodded, “Oh yeah, this one girl had...certain...things pierced and I didn’t think I was into that but fuck, man. It was so hot.” Jon got this dazed look in his eyes and smiled, probably reminiscing.

“Nice, dude. Gabe sent this guy my way and he was so tight and totally down. I love guys like that,” Ryan replied. It was just then that he noticed Brendon and Spencer sitting down. 

Spencer raised his eyebrows, looking only a little bit surprised as he said, “Oh, so you got some last night?”

With Brendon there now, Ryan felt weird talking about his hookup. The Hufflepuff simply looked at him, waiting for his reply. Ryan almost thought he saw some anger and maybe a bit of hurt flicker in Brendon’s eyes. 

“Oh, uh, yeah, this guy Eric. Nothing special, but decent,” Ryan said, suddenly not wanting to go into details. The guilt of leaving Brendon was catching up to him. Trying to move the spotlight from himself, Ryan asked, “So hey, whatever happened with Linda? You found her, right?” 

“Oh yeah, she was with Jac, Audrey and Keltie, you know, the usual. Jac and Audrey were really drunk and like bear hugged Brendon,” Spencer laughed and nudged Brendon. “Oh god, the look on your face was hilarious. I kinda thought you’d be with him, Ryan, but I guess you were with the other guy.” 

Ryan didn’t miss the accusatory tone in Spencer’s voice. He shouldn’t have left Brendon all alone last night. It was a dick move, he could see that now. But last night he had thought that sleeping with the Eric would help him stop thinking about Brendon, but instead it only made it worse. Ryan didn’t want to test how straight Brendon really was and ruin their friendship, so if he had to look like a dick for a night, he would gladly take that over losing Brendon’s friendship. 

“So did you just talk or did you actually make a move?” Jon inquired and Ryan was thankful for the distraction. Looking along the table, the Ravenclaw saw this morning’s pastries were some of his favorites. He adored pumpkin bread, it was one of the reasons that Autumn was his favorite season. While his friends made fun of him for being basic, Ryan was unshakably a sucker for anything pumpkin. 

 

Spencer shook his head, looking dejected, “No, we just talked. She had a few drinks and I didn’t want to take advantage of her or have her regret it in the morning when she remembered and start avoiding me.”

Glancing at Brendon and smiling, Spencer continued, “However, Audrey got pretty friendly with Brendon.” 

Ryan narrowed his eyes, Audrey Kitching? To most, she was thought of as the prettiest girl in school. She had luscious pink hair and just the right balance between cute and punk. Ryan had no idea Brendon was involved with her at all. Dealing with having feelings for a straight guy was hard enough, but if said straight guy fell for the prettiest girl at school, it would hurt a lot more.

Gabe slid in next to Ryan with William in tow while Pete and Patrick sat across from them.

“So, was that party great or what?” Gabe asked, reaching for a couple slices of toast.

As usual, Patrick put enough food on his plate for both him and Pete. Apparently Pete’s food never tasted as good unless he stole it from Patrick. It was moments like this that Ryan felt a pang of jealousy. The two seventh years had the perfect balance and worked so well together, it made Ryan wish he had someone like that in his life. His eyes wandered over to Brendon and sighed. 

“Yeah, it was awesome. But did you even experience any of it? From what I saw, the only thing you did last night was William,” Spencer remarked, smirking. William almost choked on his water while Gabe just grinned proudly.

“Hey man, if you were into dudes, you would spend all your time on William, too. You’ve seen these hips right?” Gabe said, motioning to William. Ryan had to admit, the Gryffindor’s dagger-like hipbones were something he used to dream about from time to time. 

Spencer rolled his eyes, “Yeah, but I’m more into soft curves and less into sharp angles. No offense, Bilvy.” William just shrugged.

“So wait, when was the last time you guys slept with other people? Is monogamy catching up to you?” Ryan pretended to look shocked. The two were known for sleeping around but Ryan hadn’t heard or seen them with other people for a while. 

Pete’s eyes crinkled as he threw his arm around Patrick’s shoulders and asked, “Yeah, are you super jealous of Patrick’s and I’s epic love?” The blonde Ravenclaw rolled his eyes but smiled and leaned into the touch. 

William laughed and replied, “Oh god, no. I mean it obviously works for you guys but it's just not for us” Gabe’s lips turned into a tight smile. William waved his fork at Ryan and continued, “And for your information Ryan, I hooked up with the Alex from your team last week.” 

Next to him, the usually overconfident Slytherin just stared into his cereal, not commenting. 

“Oh, so that’s why he was so sore during practice? I was wondering..” Ryan grinned and Jon snickered, shaking his head. 

“Hey, did you guys hear about that Mosquito Girlfriend show down in Hogsmead next month?” Patrick asked. 

Every now and then bands would come through Hogsmead, but most of the time they weren’t really Ryan’s thing. Mosquito Girlfriend was definitely an exception. They were a pop-punk quartet consisting of three girls and a guy and their music was brilliant. Their songs were full of fast guitars, catchy melodies and deep lyrics. Not to mention the guy bassist was pretty much the definition of sex, in Ryan’s opinion. 

“Oh shit, they’re coming? What day is it?” Brendon asked. While most of Brendon’s favorite bands were muggle ones, he absolutely adored Mosquito Girlfriend. 

Patrick nodded, “Yeah, on September 30th.” Brendon’s face lit up, but only for a second before Patrick continued to say, “Which is a monday.” 

The Hufflepuff’s face immediately fell. The only problem with bands coming through Hogsmead were that sometimes they weren’t scheduled on weekends. If the band was playing on a weekday, then that meant sneaking out. Since it was a rare occurrence, nobody they knew had snuck out before.

“Oh no, a weekday? But we have to go!” Brendon whined. “I haven’t seen a band at Hogsmead for like two years and that’s like way too long, okay?” 

His bottom lip jutted out and shoulders slumped. It was hard for Ryan not to smile at how cute Brendon looked when he was upset. Glancing around, Ryan saw similar reactions: Spencer, Pete and William look dejected while Gabe and Patrick’s eyebrows were furrowed in thought. It was Jon who spoke up first. 

“We’ll just sneak out,” Jon declared, looking sure of himself. Gabe and Patrick immediately nodded while the rest were more hesitant. 

Shifting over to look at Jon with wide eyes, William asked, “Sneak out? On a weekday? On a Monday? Are you crazy?” 

At Hogwarts, walking around after curfew was looked down upon. Sneaking out of the castle after curfew was asking for it. However, sneaking out after curfew on a weekday, nonetheless a Monday, was a death wish. Everyone knew that. So hearing Jon suggest such an action was nothing but absurd. 

“Yeah, I mean it’s not that crazy,” Patrick said. “It’ll take a lot of planning but it’s feasible. Pete and I can monitor when and where the staff goes at night and have the Prefects in other houses help us out.”

“Okay, but where would we plan? We obviously can’t plan this whole thing in the Great Hall, too many people could overhear,” Ryan added. While most of the planning for parties took place over meals, it was usually in hushed voices and written words between a couple of people. With this many people, it would be impossible to keep their voices low enough that surrounded groups wouldn’t hear. 

Next to Ryan, Gabe suggested, “We could use the Room Of Requirement? We use it for everything else, why not this?” 

Everyone nodded and mumbled in agreement. A few “true”s and “yeah, that works” were heard around the table. The first bell run and the group took their last few bites and started gathering their book bags. Pete got up and asked, “So, does 7 tonight work for everyone?”

Once the group agreed that the time did work for them, they all shuffled to the entrance of the Great Hall. 

\--

That evening, Ryan walked past the hidden room on the fifth floor with one thought, I need a place to talk about my secret plans to sneak out of the castle with my friends. Over the past few years, the honey-eyed Ravenclaw had perfected opening the Room of Requirement. Between the Gabe and Pete shenanigans, hooking up with random guys and needing a quiet place to think, Ryan had used this room fairly often. 

Although, he did learn that just thinking I need a place to fuck this guy was apparently not the way to go. Thinking the Room would just shape into a random, plain room, Ryan was mortified when he walked into a replica of some really cheesy honeymoon suite with hearts, rose petals and red everywhere. The guy laughed so hard that it killed the mood.

Today, the Room was a cozy living space that looked like what Ryan imagined a common room for all four houses would be. All the mascots were found around the room and yellow, blue, red and green accented the walls. Surrounding a brick fireplace were a few couches and plush chairs. Patrick was already occupying a loveseat while Pete sat practically on top of him with his legs draped over the strawberry blonde’s lap. Patrick didn’t seem to mind as he had his arms wrapped around the tattooed Prefect, holding him close to his chest. Instead of grimacing at the sight, Ryan only smiled softly. After years of hanging around the two of them, Ryan stopped making fun of all the gooey-eyed couples and begun to appreciate the level of trust and companionship that they shared. 

On the couch next to them, Gabe had his arm resting on the couch behind William’s shoulders while animately telling some joke to Travie on his other side. Though it was subtle, Ryan noticed the way William leaned ever so slightly into the obnoxious Slytherin. Choosing to sit on the couch across from them with Jon and Brendon, Ryan noticed that Spencer was missing. 

When he sat down on the other side of Brendon, Jon gave Ryan a nod while Brendon just smiled widely. Ryan smiled at the Hufflepuff’s attire. Brendon’s lavender hoodie clashed with his red glasses, and Ryan knew he should be finding this and the straightened sideburns ridiculous, but he couldn’t help but think Brendon was adorable.  
In an attempt to not get lost in thoughts of Brendon, Ryan decided to ask where Spencer was.  
Before he could get a word out, the door opened. The three of them turned to see who it was when Spencer stepped through the door. Two people were behind him and Ryan smiled proudly when he recognized them as Linda and Keltie. Earlier that day, Spencer spent the whole walk to Potions curling and uncurling his fits and wiping his hands on his pants. Now, the sheepish grin on Spencer’s face explained everything. 

“Sorry I’m late, I had to meet up with Linda and Keltie,” Spencer said uncertainly. It seemed like he was waiting for someone to say something about bringing Linda or maybe yell at him for inviting more people but instead everyone just nodded and the three of them sat down. 

Once they got settled down, Patrick began to speak, “Okay, so now that everyone’s here, let’s get down to business. Pete and I asked a couple other Prefects and it seems like there might be a window from 9:00 to 9:30pm.”

“The only problem is, that’s usually the time that Peeves roams the halls. If we get caught by him, there’s no way we’re getting out of the castle,” Pete added. 

“Wait, but couldn’t we just use Obliviate or a false memory charm if we see him?” Spencer asked, probably only speaking up to impress Linda. While Ryan didn’t want to embarrass his friend, Gabe on the other hand had no problem with it. 

“God no, those only work on living people,” Gabe scoffed. “Trust me, if that worked, I would never have detention.”

Spencer gave a feeble smile and slumped down into the couch. 

“Okay so, how should we get around Peeves? I mean we have a group of what, 10? 11 people? That’s pretty suspicious,” William pointed out. 

Ryan thought for a second and then said, “Then we split up. We could go a few at a time from different starting points so no one finds out we’re all doing the same thing.” 

Pete nodded and Patrick replied with, “Yeah, that should work. We can’t all take different routes out of the castle, but we can take different routes to the one exit.”

“So, how many people should be in one group? Should we stay with the people we most often are seen with to keep a low-profile?” Linda asked. 

“Dang, girl. I like how you think,” Gabe said and winked at Spencer, who pretended to not notice. Linda’s lashes fluttered to the side and gave a small smile. 

Jon, who didn’t notice, continued with, “Maybe two or three people? So like, Pete and Patrick, Gabe with William and Travie, Linda and Keltie, Brendon and Ryan and then me with Spencer?” 

Ryan didn’t miss the sly smile Jon gave him. Of course Jon thought Brendon should be with Ryan, of course. Spencer looked like he wanted to object, but in all honesty, it did make more sense to have him with Jon and not Linda. Everyone else seemed fine with their pairing and the meeting shifted to what groups would start where and at what time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please comment and subscribe <3 I love hearing your thoughts.


	7. Chapter 7

As it turned out, sneaking out wasn’t as hard as they thought. Although, not for all. Gabe, William and Travie all got caught within five minutes of traveling outside their dorms. Luckily, their distraction made it easier for everyone else to get out of the castle, which Ryan was thankful for. It wasn’t until they all got to the Three Broomsticks that Pete and Patrick informed them all that their friends had gotten detention. 

Ryan tried to look at the positive side of things instead of feeling guilty about his friends. He was actually pretty surprised that Brendon and him hadn’t gotten caught since the Hufflepuff was so excited that he rambled the whole journey out of Hogwarts. Ryan couldn’t find it in himself to shut Brendon up so he just put a silencio charm on him when Brendon wasn’t looking. 

Walking with him made Ryan realize that they weren’t alone together that often. Potions class, sure, but that was mostly all work. When they weren’t in class, they were usually accompanied by Jon and Spencer. So, as they walked down one of the many staircases in the castle, Ryan couldn’t help but glance over at the dark haired Hufflepuff. He was talking of course, probably about if he wanted to order butterbeer or if he wanted to head over to Honeydukes to buy candy before the show. Brendon was as indecisive as he was chatty. But in the midst of nodding his head and saying things like “oh, yeah that’s a good idea too” and “uh huh, yeah”, Ryan found himself taking in the scenery. 

But not the beautiful paintings or the handcrafted stone work of the castle, no. Ryan was more focused on the way Brendon’s eyebrows would furrow every time he went back on the decision he made two seconds ago or way his bottom lip would puff out when he was thinking. The range of emotions that the Hufflepuff went through in only a couple of minutes amazed Ryan and somehow he admired Brendon. Once or twice he thought Brendon caught him staring but even if he did, the Hufflepuff never said anything.

 

The show itself was pretty great and everyone was having a good time. Ryan couldn’t help but notice Spencer and Linda off by the bar. Spencer had already bought her two butterbeers, which Ryan thought was pretty impressive. Ever since they were young, Spencer had always been the cheap friend. He never wanted to buy the candy from the trolley because he could “why buy it for a sickle when Hogsmeade sells it for 8 knuts”. Nonetheless, Ryan was excited for his friend. He hoped that tonight would be the night that Spencer finally asked her out. 

But speaking of Linda, where was Keltie? Ryan would have thought that she and Linda would be inseparable. The Ravenclaw’s eyes roamed the room only to find Brendon and Keltie dancing in the center of the crowd. Keltie’s hand was hovering over her mouth in what appeared to be an attempt to stop laughing. Ryan followed her gaze to see Brendon dancing over exaggeratedly and smiling wildly at the reaction he was getting. The two looked like they were having fun, like actual fun. Not the kind where you first meet someone and are scared to be yourself around them, no this was Brendon when it was just Ryan, Spencer, Jon and him. This was Brendon without a care in the world. 

Much to his dismay, he was forcibly pulled away from watching the scene when Pete looped his arm around Ryan’s neck and said, “Hey, Ry, whatcha doing out here all alone?”

Still trying to watch Brendon and Keltie, the tall Ravenclaw hadn’t quite registered the question, “Uh, what?”

“Like why are you,” Pete pointed to Ryan’s chest “Not over there?” He turned to face the mass of people in front of the stage. 

It hadn’t really occurred to Ryan that he was just standing at the back of the room alone. 

“Um, I uh,” stammered the Seeker. “I don’t know.”

“Hey Ryan,” Patrick said, walking towards them and handing Pete his own drink. “Were you grabbing something to drink or something? I never see you out here during a show.”

The tattooed Prefect kissed his boyfriend on the cheek in thanks before nodding, “Yeah, I was just asking him the same thing. Usually I never see him until the shows over, he’s always by the stage.”

Patrick watched Ryan and then followed his eyes to Brendon and Keltie. He laughed softly, “What, too embarrassed to be seen with Brendon?”

Hearing his boyfriend’s remark, Pete eagerly stood on his tiptoes to see what he was talking about and sure enough, he laughed too. “Damn, those are some lame dance moves. You sure you wanna be with that guy, Ry? Aren’t you too cool for him?”

Suddenly, for the first time in this conversation, Ryan felt present. More than that, he felt offended. But, strangely the emotion wasn’t for himself. He actually felt upset for Brendon. Which was weird and the idea that he cared enough about the Hufflepuff to be offended for him over a small jab didn’t really sit well with Ryan. So maybe he would have been upset already, or maybe the comment about Brendon fueled him but Ryan couldn’t help but snap, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Ry, I was just having fun,” Pete frowned, leaning a bit more into Patrick than he already was.

The move was probably for comfort, something that can be asked for and received without a second thought by being in a happy relationship. It made Ryan’s temper simmer and his shoulders sagged, “Look, I just don’t really like how you and the guys keep saying stuff like that to me.”

Patrick gave him a sympathetic smile, “They only do it to get a rise out of you. It’s been the same with any other guy you’ve been into, but up until now you hadn’t reacted.”

Looking at his feet, Ryan tried to say, “But I’m not-”

“Into Brendon? Ryan, we’ve known you for a while. We know you like him. That much is obvious, but why you haven’t made a move isn’t.” 

Ryan felt himself sigh, of course they didn’t understand. Pete and Patrick fell into each other, it’s not like they ever had to worry about who was into guys and who wasn’t. They never had to think about ruining a friendship because they didn’t have one to begin with. The two of them went from strangers to lovers instantly, skipping all the awkwardness that came with doubting and questioning. 

Just then he saw a tall and lanky guy slip past him with three butterbeers in his hands.

“Mikey?”

The Slytherin stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around, showing a guilty smile.

“Hey, guys…”

Pete on the other hand was shocked, “How did you get out of the castle? I thought you said you didn’t want to come?” 

“Are you by yourself?”

“Who are those butterbeers for?”

And just as if they were called, Frank and Gerard walked out of the crowd.

“Mikey, what took you so long--Oh. Hey guys,” said their Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher, Gerard Way who wore an awkward smile.

Ryan’s jaw dropped, a professor? Out at a concert with his students? And not scolding them?

“Did you come with Mikey and Frank?” Pete inquired, just as surprised as Ryan was.

“Um, well,” Gerard started, looking like he was trying to figure out what story he wanted to go with before sighing. “Yeah, we all came together. But I was a student like two years ago, I like music too you know…”

“So the fact that a whole bunch of students are here doesn’t bother you?” Pete asked. “We’re not gonna get in trouble?”

“Nah, Gee is cool,” Frank said, a little shyer than Ryan was used to him being. “We’re all good, right?”

The older Slytherin took his butterbeer and nodded, “I should probably get back to the show…”

And there he went, the two of them trailed behind him and merged with the crowd. Movement caught Ryan’s eye and he turned to see what it was. Smiling widely, he realized it was Spencer leaning in to kiss Linda. He was totally gonna ask him a million questions tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know what you thought!!!! comments keep me going, I get inspired to write more so I appreciate each and every one <3 <3


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